Introduction

Hello ManaDeprived readers! My name is Chris Woodall, and I had the pleasure of competing in Pro Tour Fate Reforged. Before I share my experiences in DC, I’ll take a moment to introduce myself, and answer questions like “Who is this random guy?” and “How did he qualify for the PT?”

I’ve been playing magic for a very long time. For over 15 years. However it wasn’t until the middle of last year that I decided to play competitively. My first Grand Prix was in Cincinnati, a Standard constructed tournament. I played Boros burn in a metagame full of temples that came into play tapped, and was rewarded for it by going X-1 day 1. The trend continued, until I ran into back to back games against a very rough matchup for burn: Mono-Blue devotion. I lost both matches handily.
I finished one match outside of the money, and was sent home for a long drive and nothing to show for it. I talked to several people at the tournament that were in similar positions, and nearly every one of them had a defeated look on their face. I took the exact opposite approach. I was ecstatic. I had a taste of my first Grand Prix, and I wanted more. The thrill of competing at this level was such a rush. The loss didn’t affect me in the least. In fact, before leaving for home, I had pre-registered for my next Grand Prix.

Although the following Grand Prix did not pan out well for me (Chicago), I still had the same passion to make a deep run, and I found myself booking a flight to Salt Lake City. This was a big step for me, because this would be the first time I would actually fly to an event, and plane tickets aren’t cheap. However, I felt extremely confident. The format was limited, and I had done over 100 drafts on MTGO, putting up impressive results. My limited rating was at an all-time high, and I decided to just “go for it.”

At the end of the event, I finished the 15 swiss rounds in 1st place, and had secured my trip to the Pro Tour. I was extremely hyped. The only problem was, I later found out that the Pro Tour format had been changed to Modern, from Standard. I had not played a single game of modern in my life, and was not pleased to find out I would have to learn a new format. Yet still, I was determined to do the best that I could with the time that I had. And I actually did have plenty of time, because I qualified in September, and the PT wasn’t until February.

With the PT several months away, I was already planning another Grand Prix run. However this one was a team limited event, and I had no team. Living in a small town in Wisconsin, there weren’t many people I could ask. I did ask a few, but they already had commitments. (There is a point to this little rant, I promise!)

One night on twitch, I stumbled upon a streamer named Semulin (Travis Sowers). He was in the finals of a PTQ at the time, and was playing extremely well. Unfortunately, that PTQ didn’t end well for him, but during that stream, an idea popped into my head: “If I can’t find anybody local, why not look online?”

I messaged Travis on Twitch, introducing myself, citing my credentials, and asked if he would like to join my team for Nashville. Within 24 hours, he had agreed. We later added a 3rd member (Yang Li – aka HornofAmmon on Modo – #1 ranked limited grinder at that time.) Our team put up solid results in Nashville, finishing in the money late in day 2, but falling short of a top 4 finish.

While at Nashville – I learned two things:

1) Always bring earplugs when rooming with a stranger. (Sorry Yang, but it’s true – you snore LOUD!)
2) Travis Sowers is one of the kindest human beings on this planet. Seriously.

Travis is the kind of person that would give you the shirt off his back if you were in need of it more than him. A great guy and extremely good at magic. I’m sure I will be watching him jam limited games as Mardu for some time to come. We had some great laughs on this trip, and towards the end of it, he suggested that I get in touch with one Mr. KYT to prep for the Pro Tour. I had obviously heard of him before, and thought it was a great idea.

He had invited me to join Team ManaDeprived, and I gladly accepted. Although we weren’t able to get as much testing in as we would have liked due to real life commitments, the testing we were able to get in proved to be extremely valuable to me at the actual event.

Pro Tour Fate Reforged

Thursday:

I flew in on Thursday evening and took care of the basics after I had arrived at the Convention Center. (Registration check-in, deck registration, consent forms etc.) I then walked around the venue and was amazed at the beauty of the hotel. It was massive, with several restaurants and stores inside the building. It was a very convenient locale, having everything I would need throughout the course of the weekend. This was a very stark difference from that of a Grand Prix. I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about. GPs are typically one large room, with 1 small bathroom and maybe 1 food vendor serving barely edible food. Not at the Pro Tour. There was great tasting food at several different restaurants, and the atmosphere of the building was, for lack of a better term: Magical. I was handed a badge at check-in, (which basically felt like a VIP pass at a nightclub, because you needed it to get into “the back room”) and began exploring the tournament hall.

Later that evening, I was able to meet KYT and the rest of our team, Xavier and Jess. Initial impressions were a great bunch of people all with very different yet fun personalities. And then there was Xavier’s dad. THE Tallegrucci. He kept the whole team laughing all weekend, and I’m very glad I got the opportunity to meet him.

I decided to head back to my room, reviewed my deck registration sheet, and made some last minute changes to my sideboard. After I finished up, I went straight to bed, as I had a long day of flights and wanted to be well rested for the event.

Friday:

After grabbing some breakfast at one of the local restaurants, I headed toward the tournament hall with an hour to spare. I stopped in at the PT Store and bought myself a sweet looking Ugin playmat, and a set of dice. I was ready to rock. Shortly after, seating announcements were made, and Pro Tour Fate Reforged had begun.

I started out with a first pick Temur Sabertooth, and went second pick Flamewake Phoenix, as there was really nothing else that was great in the pack. Third pick Bathe in Dragonfire. At this point, I was setting myself up to be RG (and possibly splash blue) tempo, a draft archetype that I was very familiar with.

However, when pack 4 arrived, it told a much different story. There was no red or green, but it was loaded with solid black cards with huge signals attached to them. I can recall two specifically: Douse in Gloom, and Reach of Shadows. I took a risk, but decided to move into black, taking the Reach. I was rewarded with 5th pick Douse in gloom, 6th pick Grim Contest, 8th pick Grim Contest, and even wheeled the second Douse! Talk about being rewarded!

Pack Two, I open a Sagu Mauler and immediately decide to add a third color. I pick up two Abomination of Guduls, and a Sultai Soothsayer by the end of the pack. Pack three continue to reveal that I’m pretty much in the dream scenario of being the only Sultai drafter at the table. I even manage to pick up three Dismal Backwaters to fix my mana by the end of the third pack.

I present to you, my first draft:

Full List:

[deck]
[Lands]
3 Dismal Backwater
8 Forest
2 Island
5 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Bitter Revelation
2 Douse in Gloom
2 Grim Contest
1 Hunt the Weak
1 Kin-Tree Invocation
1 Reach of Shadows
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
3 Abomination of Gudul
2 Disowned Ancestor
1 Frontier Mastodon
1 Highland Game
1 Mer-Ek Nightblade
1 Sagu Mauler
1 Sultai Scavenger
1 Sultai Soothsayer
1 Temur Sabertooth
2 Tuskguard Captain
[/Creatures]
[/deck]

I was obviously excited to sit down in my first match with this list of 40. I finished submitting my decklist, and wandered off to my find my first round opponent. (Disclaimer: If I had known I was going to do a tournament report before hand, I would have recorded more information like names and more details about the games themselves, but unfortunately I don’t have that, so I’m going off pure memory here, I apologize for the lack of extreme detail.)

When I saw the opening colors of my first round opponent, my heart sank a little. You see, taking all these amazing black and green cards comes at the cost of passing Savage Knuckleblades, and Surrak-Dragonclaws. I was sure these two were in his list, and needed to be aware of them.

Game one was not much of a game however, as my opponent could not find his 3rd color until turn 5, at which point it was already too late. Good ol’ Mauler was smashing in on turn 6 with pseudo haste.

Game two was a different story. He was on the play, with natural basic temur colors into Savage Knuckleblade. I was able to time my Reach of Shadows to kill him in response to a pump activation, but I was met with a turn 5 Surrak Dragonclaw that would eventually defeat me in a very close game. The ending lifetotals were 2-0 (he had exactsies the turn before I would kill him with an Abomination.)

Game three was a very good one. We both drew our bombs and removal, but my outlast team combined with Mer-Ek Nightblade won the attrition match. I had just won my first match and was feeling great.

1-0 vs Temur BigGuys

My second match was extremely depressing. It was “one of those matches” where variance hit me hard. We’ve all been there.

My opponent was playing Jeskai, and he won the roll. I mulled to 6, and kept a sketchy two landers (same color). I drew my third land on turn 5, and died by turn 7 to his team of Seeker of the Way, and a pair of Jeskai Windscouts.

Game two: I was on the draw and was forced to mulligan to 5 due to lack of lands. In the same fashion as game one, I draw my third land by the time the game has already been decided, and I’m signing a loss on my match slip.

1-1 vs Jeskai ShuffleSkillz

I tried not to tilt at this point, but taking a loss with a deck this good was rough. I shake it off though, and sit down for my final match in the pod against a face I recognize as Lars Birch, Denmark World Cup Champion. He appeared to be a 5 color (primary Abzan) deck. Aha… so there WAS somebody else in black at the table. Surely his cards couldn’t compare to mine….right?

Game one looked to be going my way the entire time. I played an early Ancestor into Tuskguard into morphed Sagu Mauler, into morphed Abomination of Gudul. Game over in my mind. But in reality it was far from over. He was able to force a trade on my Ancestor, and remove my Tuskguard. I flipped up my Mauler and he took a big hit. On his turn, he drew slowly and let out a big sigh of relief. He slammed a land, and began counting cards in his graveyard. I put my Mauler and Abomination of Gudul in my graveyard before he had finished casting the Dead Drop; I knew what was coming. However, I had been holding Bitter Revelation, and on my turn I drew into a Sultai Soothsayer and I believe another Abomination of Gudul. I grind him out and eventually win the game.

Game two he did not draw his Dead Drop, and I drew a string of removal, basically killing everything he put into play and finishing him with a Tuskguard Captain with two counters on it. He was very nice, and even open to discussing strategy after taking his second loss. Not sure how he didn’t tilt. Great guy.

2-1 vs Lars Birch

Part 1 Wrap-Up

Well, this report is already getting to be quite long, and we have a lot more to cover. Going to cut part 1 off here, and wrap it up with part 2.

What Modern deck did I play? Will things continue to go my way, or will the wheels come off? Stay tuned to find out!